1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a diagnostic system and method for a home appliance, and more particularly to a home appliance diagnostic system and method for performing state inspection and fault diagnosis of a home appliance based on product information of the home appliance, which is output as a sound signal, to facilitate after-sale service for the home appliance.
2. Description of the Related Art
In operation, a home appliance stores values set for execution of the operation, information generated during the operation, fault information, etc. Particularly, in the event of a fault, the home appliance outputs a predetermined alarm, thereby enabling the user to recognize the state of the home appliance. The home appliance may output detailed fault information through its output device, for example, a display device or lamp, as well as simply notifying the user of completion of an operation or occurrence of a fault.
On the other hand, in the event of a fault in the home appliance, the user may utilize an after-sale service of calling a service center to ask advice on the state of the home appliance or request a service technician for the home appliance.
In this case, the home appliance generally outputs fault information simply or as a code value that cannot be understood by the user. For this reason, the user may have difficulty in coping with the fault in the home appliance and in accurately communicating the state of the home appliance to the service center even though contacting the service center. Consequently, when a service technician visits the user's home, a lot of time and cost may be taken for the service technician to repair the home appliance due to lack of accurate prior knowledge as to the state of the home appliance. For example, provided that a part required for repair of the home appliance is not prepared in advance, the service technician will have the inconvenience of re-visiting the user's home, resulting in an increase in repair time.
In order to solve the above problem, the home appliance may be connected to a server of the service center via a communication unit. However, in this case, it is necessary to construct a communication network.
With technological development, a fault may be remotely diagnosed over a telephone network.
European Patent No. 0510519 discloses a technique for transmitting fault information of a home appliance to a service center via a modem connected to the home appliance over a telephone network. However, this technique requires continuous connection of the modem to the home appliance. Particularly, in the case where the home appliance is a laundry treatment machine that is usually installed outdoors, a spatial restriction may be imposed on connecting the laundry treatment machine to the telephone network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,105 discloses a technique for converting fault information of a home appliance into a sound signal of an audible frequency band and transmitting the sound signal to a service center over a telephone using a telephone network. Signal interference may occur depending on an ambient environment in the course of converting the fault information of the home appliance into the sound signal of the audible frequency band and then transmitting the sound signal to a receiver of the telephone. In addition, data may be lost according to characteristics of the telephone network during the transmission of the sound signal over the telephone network.
To perform fault diagnosis on the home appliance as described above, it is necessary not only to output the sound signal but also to store data used to generate the sound signal. Especially, to perform accurate diagnosis on the state of the home appliance, it is necessary not only to generate various data but also to store data in an accumulated manner rather in a temporary manner.
However, when the home appliance suddenly stops operation due to a power a power blackout or power abnormality or due to malfunction of the home appliance, the home appliance may fail to store data, such that it is not possible to diagnose the home appliance.
Since the home appliance with a limited storage capacity cannot store data of the operation of the home appliance in an accumulated manner, there is a need to more efficiently store and maintain the data.